Mohammed Kurdi and family arrive in Vancouver as Syrian refugees

Deceased Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi’s uncle, Mohammad Kurdi, has arrived in Canada with his wife and five children on Monday.

A welcoming party awaited with flowers, balloons and signs to welcome them to Canada. “But the children slipped through my hands”.

She thanked NDP MP Fin Donnelly, NDP MLA Selina Robinson, Coquitlam mayor Richard Stewart and “our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for opening the door and showing the world how everyone should welcome and save lives”.

Darryl Dyck/AP Mohammed Kurdi (third from right), his wife (right) and their children walk with his sister Tima Kurdi (center) as they arrive in Canada as refugees at Vancouver International Airport on Monday. It was in Frankfurt that he first met his five-month-old son, Sherwan, who was alert and awake for his arrival in Canada. “Finally this dream come true”.

“Thank you to the Canadian people”, she told a crowd of reporters gathered around the family.

The three-year-old boy drowned in September along with his older brother and their mother while attempting to cross the waters between Turkey and Greece.

Despite the pain it causes every time she’s confronted with her relatives’ deaths, Tima says she doesn’t want her nephew’s tragedy to be forgotten.

One by one, her nephews and nieces, her brother Mohammad and his wife Ghousoun, clung to Tima, buried their faces in the lining of her hood, and waved little Canadian flags.

His son, 14-year-old Shergo Kurdi, echoed his father’s sentiments, adding he was happy to be returning to school soon and starting a new life. The three politicians, as well as MLA Peter Fassbender, were all at the airport.

Hivrun Kurdi, an aunt of Alan’s, with her kids in a refugee shelter in Bramsche, Germany, this month.

Tima has opened a hair salon in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where she says Mohammad will join her as a barber.

Asked what they would do when they arrive at their new home, Kurdi said: “Probably we’re not going to sleep all night, just talk, even though we talk on the phone every day, but sometimes on the phone is different than being in person. Syrian breakfast. I’m sure they haven’t had this for a long time”. “I thought they got scared and ran away”, he said.

“But we have Mohammed and his family here today”.

While Tima Kurdi praises Canada for its efforts, she worries already the world is beginning to forget the thousands of people still struggling to escape Syria. “I did not see that light yet, but it doesn’t mean it’s the end… keep walking until you find your light”.

But the Kurdi family’s fortunes seem to be turning.